So it’s Black Friday morning, you ate way too much yesterday. Sleep in or go shopping for Black Friday deals? Not for me. There are only two more days left of National Novel Writing Month and my goal of 50,000 words is just. so. close. And I’m so eager to be done. I just want to shut my laptop and lie on a beach somewhere. Maybe read something that wasn’t written by me for awhile.

I feel like anytime you force yourself to do anything for a month you find yourself tired of it by the end. I once ate seafood, just seafood, for a whole month. Sometimes I can’t even stand the smell of salmon anymore. And NaNoWriMo is not the exception. 50,000 words in one month is enough to make a professional want to quit or least take a long hiatus. I love writing – don’t get me wrong- but after a month I just feel … burned out.

But then I have to wonder, especially in the light of Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m ungrateful? Maybe I’ve forgotten that somehow, someway, I manage to have the privilege of being able to write for leisure. When I think about it, it’s amazing that I can write at all. I find myself in a very very small percent of people, and an even smaller percent of women, in all of history that can read and write. And I want to complain. I’ve done something that many people could only dream about for centuries.

I’m a strong believer that knowledge is power, and that power is responsibility. And I, today, have more access to free knowledge than most people in the history of people. So don’t I have a responsibility? A responsibility to use the things I’ve learned and learn even more? Maybe, maybe not. But I do know, I should at least be thankful. Because it didn’t have to be this way. I didn’t have to be born in this time, in this place, with these privileges.

So even if I do put down my pen after this month and take a break from writing. I want to be thankful for the things I have. I want to remember that I’m in a very special position to be able to do the things that I do. And when I write, I don’t want to take the ability for-granted.

And so , with that little note, I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving weekend and remember we all have things to be thankful for!